


Foundations

by LeaperSonata



Category: Protector of the Small - Tamora Pierce, Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-30
Updated: 2015-08-30
Packaged: 2018-04-18 00:45:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4685831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeaperSonata/pseuds/LeaperSonata
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Four vignettes of Neal and Alanna, together and at odds.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Foundations

**Author's Note:**

  * For [NightsMistress](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NightsMistress/gifts).



> I hope I managed to capture their dynamic decently! I reread the books... so many times trying to get their voices down. (And to procrastinate, admittedly.)
> 
> Thanks to Doranwen and imkerin for betaing (Doran twice!), and to bakafox and cakeandpi for looking it over and reassuring me that it wasn't the worst fic in the world. <3

"Nealan."

Neal looked up from his book to see the Lioness standing in his doorway. "Lady Alanna. Um. Did you need something?"

"Yes." She sighed and leaned against the wall. "A squire who's too smart for his own good, apparently."

Neal took a moment to process her words, then blanched. "Me? You're the knight that father said was coming? Lady Alanna, I couldn't! Kel's-" He swallowed hard. "I know Kel has never wanted anything so much as to be your squire. I couldn't do that to her! Besides, you never take a squire!"

Alanna grimaced. "You need a knight-master, and it needs to be me. I've been talking with Duke Baird, and he agrees with me: You need training in your Gift, and I can give it to you along with the rest of your knight's training." Bitterness flashed across her face, and she looked down. "I would love to have Keladry as my squire, but you know as well as I do that people aren't going to stop watching to make sure I'm not witching her to succeed now that she's passed her examinations. I can't take her." She looked up again, and cold purple eyes bored into his. "I know very well that you know how angry I was with Jonathan about his banning me from meeting her, but I do realize that she needs to be outside of my shadow."

Neal set his chin stubbornly. "But who else would take her? She won't talk about it, but I know she's terrified no one will want her as a squire at all!"

Alanna shook her head. "It's not for me to tell you who, but she's well taken care of. Don't worry that she won't find a knight-master. She'll learn things I wouldn't be able to teach her." She raised an eyebrow at him. "And you need the things I can teach, Squire Nealan. The kingdom needs them."

Neal peered at her suspiciously. "It's not Sir Myles, is it? She deserves to be in the field."

"It's not my father, I assure you."

Neal buried his face in his hands, then raked them back through his hair, leaving it sticking up in odd directions. "I'm going to go talk to my father." He stood up abruptly, abandoning his book on the bed, and strode out of the room past her.

 

When he found her again, she was in the practice courts, watching the other squires train.

"I don't really have a choice, do I," he said without introduction.

"Of course you have a choice," Alanna said calmly. "There are always choices. For example, you could make the choice to go back to university and finish training to be a healer there, and give up on this knight thing."

Neal shot her a poisoned glare. "That's not a choice." He sighed. "Father says I'd better, and so does the king. That this is what's best for everyone. I suppose... I don't know how I'll break it to her."

"Her prospective knight-master is speaking with her today as well. She..." Alanna sighed. "She should be fine, from what little I know of her."

Neal raised an eyebrow at her. "Little. Am I to understand that the daughter of the realm's spymaster knows _little_ of someone she's interested in?"

"There is only so much my father's methods can learn about the emotional reactions of a girl who spends most of her time pretending not to have any," Alanna said dryly. "Are you resigned to your fate yet?"

He sighed again and rubbed at his forehead absently. "I suppose I must be."

Alanna _looked_ at him.

"I mean, thank you Lady Alanna. I accept the position as your squire." He swept an elaborate bow.

Alanna rolled her eyes. "You can go and tell Keladry now. Pack your things tonight. I'll let you know tomorrow what our plans will be." She turned and left the practice courts.

Neal sighed and kicked at the floor. "She's going to kill me," he said to no one in particular.

 

* * *

 

 

"It's not like they're going to fail to notice that you're a woman just because your shield doesn't have a distaff border."

"I like my shield the way it is, thank you very much." Alanna absently ran a possessive hand over the shield emblazoned with a lioness rampant that hung from her saddle. Her mare's ears flicked.

"I'm just saying," Neal repeated. "Everyone knows you're a lady knight. You're _the_ lady knight, the King's Champion. Not having a distaff border isn't going to make them think you're not." His mare sidled sideways and he reined her absently back towards his companion, focused on the argument.

"That's not why my shield doesn't have one," Alanna snapped. Her mare shook her head and stamped her foot, as if for emphasis.

"It doesn't have one because your first shield was made when you were still pretending to be a boy, yes. You can _change_ it, you know," Neal said patiently, in a tone one would use to tell a particularly dim small child that cats and dogs were different species.

Alanna shot him a glare that would curdle milk. "I like my shield the way it is!" She frowned down at her horse, whose gait had shortened while her attention was divided.

"Poor Kel, the only user of a distaff border in the wor-" Neal's overwrought monologue was cut off by their horses stopping abruptly as the earth beneath them dropped several inches. His jaw snapped shut audibly when they hit the ground.

Alanna swore fluently.

Neal clutched at his reins, ashen. "An earthquake?"

She nodded, then snapped a command in what Neal was reasonably certain was Bazhir. Her mare lowered herself to the ground immediately. Neal’s danced nervously for a moment, but dropped its head and laid down as well when she leveled a glare at it.

 

When the earth had quieted and it had been a few minutes since the last trembles shook themselves out, Alanna signaled the horses to stand up again. “Right. If we’re both all right, and the horses are both all right, we need to head for the town we were going to pass through today.”

Neal raised an eyebrow at her quizzically. “Why?”

“We came through all right because we were out in the open. There weren’t any buildings available to fall on us. People in a town won’t have been so lucky. Two knights - more, two healers - can be a lot of help, but only if we get there quickly.”

As they rode towards the town, a plume of smoke rapidly grew in front of them. Alanna's lips tightened. "It's as I feared. They're going to need help. More practice for you, lad."

Neal nodded, looking pale. "There are only two of us. What can we do?"

"We can organize them to help with the fires, if they haven't organized themselves already," Alanna pointed out. "We can get the uninjured to help us rescue anyone trapped. And we can deal with the injured. You haven't gotten much practice yet with emergency triage." Her lips twisted in a smile that was half a grimace. "You're about to get some."

Neal gulped and nodded, hands tightening on the reins.

 

By the time they rode into the town, the smoke was thick enough that both had tied handkerchiefs soaked from their waterskins over their faces to filter the air they breathed.

Some of the villagers were running back and forth from the town's well with buckets, trying to put out the blaze, while others were clustered in knots around the most damaged houses. Hearing hoofbeats, a woman in the nearest group looked up. When she caught sight of the shield hanging from Alanna's saddle, hope lit in her face, and she ran to meet them.

"Lioness! My lady, they say you're a healer. Can you help us?"

Alanna nodded briskly and dismounted. "Neal, tie up the horses, then come straight to me. Now, do you know how many are hurt, Mistress...?"

"Mistress Weaver, my lady. We haven't found everyone yet."

Alanna looked around, then took a breath and shouted in the voice of implacable command. "Everyone, come here and form two lines from the well to each building that's on fire! One carrying the buckets to the fire, and one back to the well to be filled!" She turned back to Mistress Weaver. "As soon as the danger from the fire is under control, we'll move onto the houses that not everyone made it out of. Can all the injured be gathered somewhere? Is the inn intact?"

"It is, my lady." Alanna nodded sharply. "Have all the injured that have been found gathered there. Anyone who is bleeding heavily first. Leave anyone who was hit in the head where they are until I can look at them - have someone ready to show me where they are as soon as possible."

Neal came up behind her, carrying one of their saddlebags. She turned to look at him and nodded in approval. "Good. You realized we'd need the healer's kit. You go to the inn and start bandaging the wounded and stopping bleeding. Don't use too much power until we know all of what we're dealing with. If you can save someone with cloth for now, do it. I'll be along as soon as I see to those who can't be moved yet." She glanced around and jerked her head towards a sign with a beer mug down the street. "Mistress Weaver says the inn is intact, and I've asked them to have the wounded gathered there."

Neal looked panicked. "But, Lady Ala-"

She cut him off. "No buts. You are perfectly capable of holding together flesh wounds for half an hour without me. These people need us in a dozen places, and we can't manage that, but we can at least be in two."

He swallowed further protest and nodded, his face white and set, then headed for the inn.

 

* * *

 

 

Neal looked rather grey. "Alanna?" he managed.

She turned to look at him, uncharacteristic sympathy in her eyes. "Yes, Neal?"

"Is- Will I-" He buried his face in his hands, then looked up again. "I'm going to survive the Ordeal, right?"

She smiled, though it was half a grimace. "You are a very far thing from Joren, lad. You need not fear the Chamber will treat you like it did him. It treats everyone as they deserve."

"But I'm really quite selfish and heartless!" Neal protested.

Alanna snorted. "Yes, I'm sure Joren would have jumped to work himself into unconsciousness healing peasants."

Color flooded to his ashen cheeks and he glared at the floor. "Maybe I only did it because I wanted people to think well of me, like how Joren pretended to be friends with Kel."

She caught his chin with one hand and pulled his face up to look at her. "Neal, I may not be the most perceptive person in the world. But even if my husband and father were not what they are - leaving everyone of the older generations aside - do you really think you could fool _Keladry_ into thinking that you were something you were not?"

He managed a wan smile. "I suppose not."

"Exactly. You'll be fine."

 

* * *

 

 

"I hear you've been putting my training to good use."

Neal jumped and spun around, straightening automatically out of his habitual slouch. "Lady Alanna!"

She flapped a hand at him lazily. "No need for that. You're not my squire anymore. Unless you'd prefer I call you Sir Nealan."

He grimaced and shook his head. "Not particularly. Alanna. What brings you here?"

"I wanted to see how our heroine's command was going." She sighed wistfully. "I knew- I hoped she'd do well, but I didn't imagine... this." She gestured around her at the bustling domesticity of New Hope. "I'm afraid I don't really know what to do with myself here, let alone anyone else. Care to show an old horse around the walls?"

Neal's jaw dropped in shock, and he hurriedly closed it. "You're not old!"

Alanna chuckled. "My joints beg to differ. Show me the walls, lad, and tell me how things have gone. I hear you and your father fixed a hole in a man's heart." She smiled at him. "I can't imagine you ever expected you'd do that, when you were claiming you couldn't sew up half a dozen peasants on your own."

Neal blushed and looked down as he strode alongside her towards the staircase up to the top of the fortified walls. "My father was the one directing the work."

"And you wouldn't have been able to follow his directions if you hadn't had a good handle on your power. There's no need for modesty, Neal."

He shook his head absently. "I'm more inclined to anger than modesty. They were going to send that man out to fight, and claim it wasn't an execution." He looked down over the town with an expression one might almost mistake for pride on his face. "No one but Kel gave a damn about any of these people."

"Could've fooled me," Alanna said dryly. "Didn't half a dozen of you green knights go tearing after her, and a whole company of King's Own?" Neal glared at her sidelong. "Don't look at me like that. Of course I heard what happened. Raoul ordered the Own himself, and he's one of my best friends, remember?"

Neal sighed. "The rest of us went for Kel's sake. She's the one who went for them."

"I hear there was a faction that was in favor of just dragging her back and leaving the refugees, but they were overruled," Alanna said casually. Neal forgot himself enough to turn and glare at her directly. "What, you expect my husband _not_ to tell me when he hears things?"

Neal sank back on his heels and grimaced. "All right, yes. We weren't going to go disobeying orders and haring off of our own accord, but once she started it..." He coughed, looking embarrassed. "Besides, they'd've made killing machines out of ou-the children. It was in our own self-interest, really."

Alanna smirked. "I'm sure it was."

 

 


End file.
